1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for improving its configuration and facilitating its assembly.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner consists of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator, to provide a more pleasant indoor environment to a user. And, the air conditioner is a device for cooling/heating an indoor space or purifying air using a phase change of a refrigerant according to a thermodynamic cycle. Moreover, the air conditioner can be categorized into a separate type and a combined type.
The separate type air conditioner consists of an indoor unit, an outdoor unit, and a refrigerant pipe connecting the indoor and outdoor units together, in which the indoor and outdoor units are separated from each other for installation. In particular, a cooling/radiating device is provided to the indoor unit and a radiating/cooling device and a compressor are provided to the outdoor unit. The combined type air conditioner, which has the same function of the separate type air conditioner, builds an indoor unit and an outdoor unit in one body to be installed on a house window and the like.
FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of a combined type air conditioner according to a related art, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective diagram of a combined type air conditioner according to a related art, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional diagram of a combined type air conditioner according to a related art.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a combined type air conditioner according to a related art consists of a base 2, a cabinet 4 provided over the base 2, and an air guide 6 partitioning an internal space of the cabinet 4 into an indoor side space I and an outdoor side space O.
A front panel 9 configuring a front part of the combined type air conditioner is provided to a front side of the cabinet 4. Within the cabinet 4 provided are a compressor 12 changing a low-temperature and low-pressure state of a gaseous refrigerant into a high-temperature and high-pressure state and a condenser 14 condensing the gaseous refrigerant from the compressor 13 into a liquid refrigerant.
An expansion valve (not shown in the drawing) expanding the high-temperature high-pressure liquid refrigerant condensed by the condenser 14 into a low-temperature low-pressure two-phase refrigerant (mixture of liquid and gas) and an evaporator 16 evaporating the two-phase refrigerant having passed through the expansion valve are provided within the cabinet 4.
Outdoor intake ports 5 are provided to a lateral side and topside of the cabinet 4 forming the outdoor side space O to suck air, and its backside is open to blow air to an outdoor space.
The air guide 6 consists of a lower guide 7 provided on the base 2 and an upper guide 8 provided over the lower guide 7.
An indoor air intake port 10 is provided to a front side of the front panel 9 to suck indoor air. And, an indoor air blowing path his provided over the indoor air intake port 10.
An intake grill 10a is provided to the indoor air intake port 10, and a plurality of air shift louvers 11a are provided to the indoor air blowing path 11.
A plurality of the air shift louvers 11a include a right/left air shift louver adjusting a wind direction of air in right/left direction and a upward/downward air shift louver adjusting a wind direction of air in upward/downward direction.
The combined type air conditioner further consists of a motor 20 provided between the indoor side space I and the outdoor side space O to be fixed to the air guide 6. The motor 20 includes a front shaft 20a projected toward the indoor side space I and a rear shaft 20b projected toward the outdoor side space O.
A turbo fan 24 is connected to the front shaft 20a to forcibly circulate the indoor air to the evaporator 16, and an orifice 26 is provided to an intake side of the turbo fan 24 to accelerate a wind velocity of air.
A propeller fan 28 is provided to the rear shaft 20b to forcibly pass the outdoor air to the condenser 14. And, a shroud 30 is formed in rear of the propeller fan 28 to configure a passage of the outdoor air sucked by a rotation of the propeller fan 28.
An operation of the above-configured related art combined type air conditioner is explained as follows.
First of all, once the combined type air conditioner is actuated, the refrigerant circulates in a cooling cycle including the compressor 12, the condenser 14, an expansion mechanism (not shown in the drawing) and the evaporator 16. And, the bi-shaft motor 20 is driven to rotate the turbo fan 24 and the propeller fan 28.
If so, the front side indoor air of the combined type air conditioner is sucked in a rear direction by the rotation of the turbo fan 24 to pas through the air intake port 10 of the front panel 9. And, the indoor air passes through the evaporator 16 to lower its temperature and then passes through the orifice 26, the lower guide 7 and the upper guide 8 in turn. Thereafter, the indoor air passes through the air blowing path 11 of the front panel 9 to be blown to the front side of the combined type air conditioner again.
Meanwhile, the outdoor air is sucked into the intake ports 5 of the cabinet 4 by the rotation of the propeller fan 28 to pass through the shroud 30 and then passes through the condenser 14 to take heat from the refrigerant to be blown out to the outdoor space.
However, the above-explained related art air conditioner has the following problems or disadvantages.
First of all, it is difficult to assemble the motor of the related art air conditioner. In particular, a configuration for installing the motor is complicated.
Secondly, since cold/hot air flows backward due to the gap existing between the motor and an opening penetrated by the motor, cooling/heating efficiency of the related art air conditioner is lowered.
Thirdly, since the motor is fixed to the backside of the air guide, the intensity of the motor vibration transferred to the cabinet is raised in the related art air conditioner.